The Pacific Warrior Journey

Every morning, we wake up and the ocean is there, surrounding our island. But now the ocean, driven by climate change is creeping ever closer. Unless something changes, many of our Pacific Islands face losing everything to sea level rise.

For 20 years we’ve asked world leaders to take action to stop polluting the atmosphere. We cannot wait longer. Now, warriors of the Pacific are rising peacefully to protect the Pacific Islands from climate change. Our message: We are not drowning. We are fighting.

This October, we stood up to those blocking action on climate change. We’ve been building traditional canoes across the Islands. Pacific Climate Warriors will journey to Australia, where they will use the canoes to peacefully lay down a challenge to the fossil fuel industry.

We must act now to protect our culture, our land and our oceans, and we need people all around the world to stand with us.

Who we are

Five years ago, our network of young Pacific Islanders began to form under the name of 350 Pacific, to join with the global climate change movement, 350.org.

Active in 15 of the Pacific Island Nations, we have a unique approach of empowering young people to understand the issue of climate change and to take action to protect and enrich our islands, cultures, and oceans.

We know we cannot deliver this project on our own. We don’t have big bank accounts, big funders, or big email lists. That’s why we’re asking the international community to stand in support with the Pacific Warriors.

What we do have is the network of courageous young Pacific Islanders – from Niue to Tuvalu – that have been learning the skills of canoe building from their elders, are clued up about how climate change is affecting their Islands, and are ready to stand up peacefully but powerfully to the fossil fuel industry in Australia as warriors for their Islands.

The Pacific Warrior Journey

As Pacific Warriors we will journey to Australia to tell the fossil fuel industry in person to stop their radical plans that are destroying our island homes.

This journey will be epic. From across 13 Pacific Islands, our Pacific Warriors will travel to Australia, carrying with us traditional hand-made canoes decorated with symbols of support from our homelands. We will use these canoes to lay down a challenge to the fossil fuel industry, and to highlight what we will lose if their reckless contribution to climate change continues. This will be a means of telling the industry, the Australian public, their Government, and the global community that climate change is having a real impact and is threatening the culture, health and environment of our Pacific Islands.

Following this, our Pacific Warriors will travel the country, bringing our story of struggle directly to the Australian people. This will be a call-to-arms, a request that Australians take up the fight to the fossil fuel industry to save our homelands.

We know that many Australians are ready to stand with us. As we arrive, Australians around the country will stand in solidarity because our fight is their fight too. From those fighting against the construction of new coal mines at Maules Creek and in the Galilee Basin, to those working on essential policy changes, Australians will collectively stand up to say “we will not let our neighbours drown.”